Monday, September 19, 2011

Childhood Friends: Laughing Our Way Through Life

Cindy

I read a blog post written by Deidra over at The High Calling. She wrote about laughter. She suggested that the rest of us write our own stories about the same topic. Here is mine. Happy Reading!

Cindy and I are the products of an Alabama small town. We met as babies in a playpen. Our mothers plopped us down together to play as they visited. We really didn’t have much choice in the matter. We were just there together, kind of like siblings.

Kathy being silly at work

Nourishment provided by our families and each other, mixed with sunshine, clean air and a little rain helped our friendship to blossom over the years. I don’t know what we did as babies; don’t remember. But as we grew, we traipsed through mud puddles, explored our neighborhood, traded crushes on boys and just generally had a marvelous time.

And we laughed. And laughed, and laughed. Through good times and bad, and sometimes through tears, we laugh. Whatever the occasion, we can find something funny. Whatever the pain, we go through it together and make a point to laugh anyway. The laughter is our song to the universe singing a melody of perseverance to the stars.

We used to meet up for a glass of tea (this usually turned into a several hour affair) and we would laugh, at the simplest, silliest things. Sometimes, I would fuss at her for her timing. Well, it was her own fault! She would say something really funny right before I took a sip of tea and it took all of the control that I could muster not to spew the tea all over her face, because it was so hard to swallow and laugh at the same time. I chuckle now just thinking about it.

Kathy and Cindy

Our time spent together these days is over the phone. During those occasions, one of my boys will enter the room and say, “Well, I know that you are talking to Aunt Cindy”. (I make them call her Aunt because she is too close for them to call her Miss.) I ask them how they know. The answer is usually, “Well Mom, whenever I can hear you laughing loudly all over the house, it means that you are talking to her!”